In the wake of the shooting of Trayvon Martin the media has come up with a variety of things to enrage and entertain the general public. One thing which we were not expecting is the blaming, not on the man who actually shot Martin, but on the apparel choice Martin made that day. On March 23rd on Fox News Geraldo Rivera said, “I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.”
If the hoodie is such a hazardous choice, one that can potentially result in death, then makers of hoodies should start including a warning label on all said items. And forget about leggings, schools should ban hoodies if they pose such a risk to young people’s lives.
Rivera stated that “if you’re a gangster wannabe, you’re going to be perceived as a menace.” Never mind that gang members are in no way the only people who happen to wear hoodies. By Rivera’s logic, then should joggers wearing sweatshirts with hoods be afraid that they will be judged as a threat? What about a mother wearing a hoodie she purchased at American Apparel, should she be worried? Of course not. Nobody should feel like they are in the position to be “perceived as a menace” based off of an article of clothing, and that goes for young men of color as well.
Rivera continued on to say, “I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies.”
It is absolutely absurd to blame Trayvon Martin for other people’s prejudices and assumptions. If people look at “black and Latino youngsters” in certain articles of clothing and assume that they are up to no good, then the problem lies within our own unfortunately racist society. Rivera’s comment implies that if a white teenager was walking down the street wearing a hoodie, they would not pose a threat in the way a black or Latino teenager would.
Instead of blaming teenage Latinos and African-Americans for what they wear, we need to look at the judgements we make as a society about people based on skin color, and by doing so try to overcome these immediate and unfair assumptions that lead to the death of innocent citizens like Trayvon Martin.